The present invention relates to infant playthings, and more specifically to playthings coordinated with the stages of learning and development in the first years of life. The toy of the present invention is designed to invite interaction and provide a stimulating response to such interaction. The toy invites and responds to the predictable patterns of hand movement and manipulative activities learned and practiced in the first year and a half of life.
Within about the first week of life, a child exhibits a reflex grasping action with which he will attempt to wrap his fingers around and grasp anything placed in contact with his palm. As this grasping technique is developed it becomes accompanied by arm movements, the first of which take the form of random movements in a predictable arc over the body while the child is laying on his back. At a very early age, the child will attempt to grasp objects encountered in this random arm movement.
For many years, infant development testing kits and specifically the Gesell Kit have included a wooden ring approximately six inches in diameter that was painted or stained red. The ring was used to test eye tracking and reflex arm movement and grasping. This testing was accomplished by suspending the ring on a string, and moving it slowly back and forth above the face of a reclining child. The ring was developed from an embroidery hoop which had proven a successful grasping object for young babies. The ring, however, is of limited use in that it offers little response to manipulation, and does not encourage later developing patterns of voluntary reaching and grasping, hand passing and letting go, as will be explained below.
Other manipulative toys which incorporate a number of rings are the "Space Rings".TM. marketed by Creative Playthings and the "Gyro" marketed by Agate Plastics Corporation. The "Gyro" has three rigid concentric rings with a single rigid axis that extends therethrough and on which the rings rotate. The "Space Rings" has three rigid concentric rings. The largest ring has two opposed knobs on its inside surface which snap into openings in the outer surface of the middle ring, providing an axis of rotation of the largest ring with respect to the middle ring. The middle ring, in turn, has two opposed knobs on its inside surface which are located along a line which is perpendicular to the line described by the knobs of the outer ring. The knobs in the middle ring snap into openings provided on the outer surface of the smallest ring, providing an axis of rotation of the middle ring (and largest ring) with respect to the smallest ring. Thus, while the toy has an altering, rather than a rigid, axis, the axis of each ring is normal to the axis of its next innermost ring, and all movement is limited rotational movement about a common center. Both toys are limited in their movement, providing a limited response during play, and offer a limited number of grasping sites for continued interaction.
Another prior art toy consisting of a number of rings is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 140,681 to Stuart. The toy comprising three discontinuous or open concentric rings attached together with a string or cord. The openings in the rings are aligned, the string passes through the rings, along one side of the openings, toward their center, and back out again along the other side of the openings. This structure does not have the limiting axes of rotation seen in the "Space Rings" or "Gyro" but exhibits such an independence of movement of each ring in response to movement of the other rings as to severely limit the toy's ability to provide an interesting and enticing response to manipulation.